Happy New Year - Reflecting on 2010 - Foster Kittens

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 Where has 2010 gone to? It seems we just celebrated Christmas 2009 not that long ago.

Looking back on 2010:

We fostered 15 kittens from the Teller County Regional Animal Shelter - that is a record for us! We were blessed with some adorable kittens this year. First (in February) were Thelma & Louise (rescued from the helipad in Victor) who had new homes even before we took them back to the shelter in late April, followed shortly thereafter by the nekked as a jay bird bottle fed kitten, Jellybean (found in a trash can at a gas station). Then came Barbie and Kenny and a week later their sister Krissy (all rescued from a trailer park in Woodland Park - Krissy was found almost dead in a trash can). Immediately after Jellybean, Barbie, Ken & Krissy went back to the shelter in July we got Magpie & Raven (found outside at the Children's ARK in Ute Pass - Magpie was a "special needs" kitten). In August we got Black Jack, Blackberry, Inky (who we called Blueberry or "Boo") and Soot (who we called Ace of Spaced or "Ace") all slender little short haired black Oriental kittens. When I picked Ace and Boo up from the vet's office, it turns out Ace had been switched with Espresso (another black kitten who had been at the vet's for neutering that same day - also from the shelter). We kept Espresso because he needed some socialization work. He went back to the shelter in mid December and I was bereft without kittens in the house! Two days later the shelter called and asked if I could take in two more kittens - of course I could!! So we picked up Mickey and Mack and they are still here. I am in love with Mickey but hubby says we already have enough cats and don't "need" another one. Sigh...it is so hard sometimes to foster these little love bugs and then take them back to the shelter when the time comes!

Tomorrow I'll reflect more on what we did in 2010.

 

Barbie, Kenny, Krissy & Jellybean Update

As of last night all of the kittens from the last batch of fosters have been adopted! Kenny was the first to be adopted, followed by Barbie. Kenny was so incredibly gorgeous, that really doesn't surprise me. Krissy and Jellybean got very sick while they were at the shelter so they were in quarantine and weren't available for viewing by potential adopters so that is part of why they took so long to be adopted. They were taken to a PetCo in Colorado Springs a week ago in the hopes that someone would fall in love with them and adopt them together. Yesterday afternoon Krissy was adopted, which left Jellybean all alone. If we had voted on Cat Most Likely To Be Adopted First, Jellybean would have taken that award, paws down. I was chatting online with my daughter when I got the email telling me that Krissy had been adopted. She couldn't believe that Jellybean was still there...alone. Her BF had just come home so she went and told him and he told her to just please go get Jellybean and bring her home! He had already said "I wouldn't be upset if I came home from work and found Jellybean here." (there's a huge hint if I ever heard one!) So, Jellybean is now in her loving furever home. And the best part of it is I get to visit her whenever I want to!! Woo hoo! Way to go Barbie, Kenny, Krissy and Jellybean!

And now Krissy and Jellybean are doing the happy dance!!

Foster Kittens Update

The foster kittens have grown like crazy in the past week! Little Krissy who was so emaciated that she couldn't even stand up on her own when I got her now looks like Jabba the Hut. My vet told me that feral and stray cats who don't know when or where their next meal will come from will gorge themselves when they find food. Apparently Krissy fits this profile. Poor little baby. I'm just happy that she has put weight on and is playing with the other kittens. They are still a bit jumpy around people but are warming up to us and getting better every day.

Here is Kenny, lounging on his favorite fleece blankie.

And Barbie lounging on her favorite blankie (doesn't she look like she's smiling?!)

And Krissy has crawled up to the highest spot she could find and is lounging on her favorite sherpa fleece bed (see the Buddha belly on this girl?!)

And last but certainly not least is little Jellybean who is now completely off the bottle and on solid foods with the rest of the kittens (whew!) And her hair has grown back, too.

She runs to us and climbs right up our legs and all the way up to our shoulder where she sits like a little parrot.

Foster Kittens Update

It has been touch and go, up and down this week with the foster kittens. Barbie and Kenny are doing great. Barbie is very sociable, affectionate and purrs like crazy when I cuddle her. Kenny is still a bit frightened but will let me cuddle him without laying his ears back now. Krissy, the third kitten in the litter, has turned the corner I believe. She weighed a mere 13.4 ounces when I picked her up on Monday. Barbie and Kenny were 1 pound 2 ounces and 1 pound 3 ounces so they weighed almost half again as much as Krissy did. Krissy went up to 13.8 ounces, then back down to 13 ounces (she wanted to sleep instead of eat she was so weak) and this morning when I weighed her she weighs 14.4 ounces so she's gained a full ounce in 3 days, which is good.

Here are the three kittens: Barbie is in front, Kenny is back left and Krissy is back right.

Krissy is a blue-cream dilute tortoiseshell. Her main color is that blue/gray and she has patches of peachy/cream all over, which you can't see in this photo but I'll get better pics when she's gotten stronger and is looking a bit better. She's still a bit scraggly looking.

And then there is little Jellybean. She is at least 5 weeks old and she should be starting to eat solid foods. The canned KMR she has been drinking is fairly expensive and each little can only lasts two days so it is costing about $2/day to feed her! I found an all species powdered milk replacer at the feed store and decided to switch her over to it. I mixed 25% of the new formula with the KMR for a few days and then had to go to 50/50 because the KMR was almost gone and she refused to eat. She got diarrhea with a tinge of blood which means she wasn't absorbing the food anyway so we went and bought more cans of the KMR for her and she's still upset. I think she's hungry and the formula isn't filling her up so she's getting very frustrated. She's lost a couple of ounces but is still alert and active so I'm hoping she'll start eating the rice baby cereal, milk replacer, meat baby food gruel I've been making for the other kittens. Thank goodness we have these other kittens here now to help her learn how to eat and play and be a normal kitten! 

Barbie, Kenny & Jellybean Update

Last Friday I decided to introduce little Jellybean, the bottle fed foster kitten, to the newest foster kittens, Barbie and Kenny. They hit it off right away and played then slept together off and on throughout the entire day. I put Jellybean back into her crate that night and then back into the bathroom with Barbie and Kenny on Saturday where they played and played and played. Barbie and Kenny even showed Jellybean how to eat out of a bowl, although she still prefers her bottle, but she's eating some beef or chicken baby food along with her formula now.

Jellybean can hold her own against these other kittens - they only outweigh her by a couple of ounces. Here, Jellybean is going in for the kill on Kenny.

The kittens blend right in with the little throw rug in the bathroom. Camo kitties!

And when they're done playing, here's how they like to sleep.

I think it is so sweet how Barbie and Kenny have let little Jellybean into their family. 

Jellybean is finally growing back some hair now so she doesn't look like a Chinese Crested dog or a Sphynx cat.

And last night the people who found Barbie and Kenny called me to let me know they had caught the third kitten of the litter. I picked her up this morning and she is in sad condition. She was so weak and lethargic it was scary but she immediately started eating some of the chicken baby food and lapped up some warm formula and then crawled on top of the cube to sleep with her brother and sister. She is a gorgeous blue-cream dilute tortoiseshell that I named Krissy. She's a beautiful blue/gray with peachy slotches all over her. I'll get pics of her after she's feeling a bit better.

All four of these kittens will need new furever homes in several weeks after they've been socialized, acclimated to the other cats and dogs and spayed/neutered. So if you're in the area and looking for a beautiful kitten companion, please keep these kittens in mind.

Meet Barbie & Kenny

Here are the two kittens we just took in to foster. The one up front is a female and the one in back is a male. They are gorgeous little tabby cats! These came from the trailer park near the Wal-Mart in Woodland Park. Their Momma had her kittens underneath one of the trailers and had torn through the insulation on the bottom of the trailer. The kittens had been playing all over under the trailer, driving the owner's dog crazy. They managed to catch two of the three kittens. I haven't heard anything more about the third kitten - a little gray one. I named the little female Barbie and the male is Kenny. If you're in the area and you can give one or both of these little guys a good loving furever home, please let me know. They can be adopted through TCRAS (Teller County Regional Animal Shelter) after they have been spayed and neutered. The adoption fee covers the spay/neuter and all their shots. TCRAS is a no-kill shelter so the cats don't have a short time-line for adoption but they would be so much happier in their own home! We have a wonderful group of staff and volunteers that provide so much time, energy and love to the animals. Go TEAM CAT! ;o)

Barbie and Kenny are so shy and scared right now. They spent the first day inside this little cube hiding behind the little stuffed rabbit inside. This morning I found them on top of their cube cuddled together. They had eaten every last bite of the food I put out for them, drank quite a bit of the water and they didn't budge when I came in to visit them this morning. Yesterday if they were out of their cube they high-tailed it as fast as they could go to "safety". Kenny is hissy but he's pretty much all talk and no action. I've been able to pick him up without problems from the very beginning but he's tried to nail others who attempt to pick him up. I think they'll come around quickly because I can get them to purr when I snuggle them. You can't see it in this pic but Kenny has the most gorgeous blue eyes. Barbie's eyes are a gorgeous hazel and she is a spotted tortoiseshell tabby - she has red in with the gray/brown of her fur and spots along with the stripes, which you can see much better in the photo below.

Little Kenny is a dark gray/brown striped Tabby. His stripes are better defined than Barbie's are and I think he's going to be a gorgeous cat! He sure is a cute little guy now. ;o)

Wordless Wednesday